France in color

Just a few dreamy scenes from our drive through southwest France......

Saint-Cirq Lapopie ~ a United Heritage site. Possibly the most perfect example of a "charming village somewhere in France" that I have ever set foot in.

I can't tell you where this is but I do know it's called Chapelle Saint Roch (see my excellent memory below). We were meandering through a small town when all of a sudden this precious chapel appeared in front of us. I shouted to STOP THE CAR and hopped out in the rain to snap this shot.


The grounds of one of our stops along the way - Chateau de La Treyne.

Île de Ré, France

View from the lighthouse to the sea.


It was late October and we were driving through the Lot Valley in southwestern France. It was beautiful, of course. Lush and fragrant with fall. We had no particular plans, other than to end up in Cognac to visit a barrel making acquaintance. I studied the map (ok ~ the GPS on my phone) to see what lay ahead in that general direction. But something tickled at the back of my mind, percolating until it finally bubbled up to the top and I remembered ~ Île de Ré!! Just off the coast of Bordeaux, a tiny island of oyster farms, vineyards, a lovely harbor and this twinkling lighthouse. We spent the day there and now I dream of going back to stay for several soothing days of bike-riding and beach-walking. And ~ see above ~ café afternoons.

A happy day at Playa del Rey

It's got to be a good day in December when you can watch your Uncle Svein play tag football on the beach.
In your bathing suit!
And after a bike ride and before a romp in the pool.
Sigh ......

Christmas shopping

I shot the pot but cannot take credit for the witty blurb. (This is a poster to hang in the window at Bram on Sonoma Square. )

Bram Cookware

Recently I had an opportunity to shoot photos for a brand new store in Sonoma called Bram ~ selling Egyptian cookware and more. It's on Sonoma Square in an ideal location. The owners are Ash (an Egyptian who plays soccer with Trygve) and his talented wife Shelly. You can see my photos on each of the main pages of their website, http://www.bramcookware.com/. And here are a few of them for your viewing pleasure! (But, honestly, you will love this shop ~ and be sure to check out the outdoor space ~ when we had dinner there with them, after the first photo shoot, I was suddenly in Europe.)

Big Surf

We are in Newport Beach right smack in the middle of a Big Surf day. Here at the Wedge a thousand people have gathered to gape at the awesome surfers. If I could, I would include audio of the waves crashing and the crowd gasping.




Svein builds up a mound of sand to get above the masses and snap this perfectly-timed shot.

The lifeguards have to give up trying to get on-lookers to stay back on top of the cliff and away from the water's edge.


How huge are these waves?! Reports were 20 -25 feet.


Further up the beach, the Balboa Pier is pounded.


Girls ....standing on the edge of the world.

The Wedge

Newport Beach Peninsula. Five miles of white sand beach come to an end here and this tree is the exclamation point.

La Bella Beatrice

Sisters! One two years along and one four days.

A morsel of chocolate after 20 minutes of photos ~ the beginning of a lifetime of treats.

Basking in the glow of a job well done.

Fringed with joy

Coming ...
...and going ...



... and waiting for June.

Lunch in Paris December 2008

We're in Le Comptoir for lunch. To snag a dinner reservation, we would have had to call months in advance. But (here's a secret) if you wander in around 4 in the afternoon, you can walk right in, sit right down, and have yourself the meal of a lifetime. You see here the menu, written on a mirror, and also Trygve and me in a few years if we move to Paris and indulge in 2 hour lunches of dishes that have never been prepared in such a way ever. Really. Unbelievably good. I could barely stay conscious.

If you double click on the bottom photo, you will see what could have been the woman some decades earlier, seated beside her.